ADDRESS BY W. R. HUGHES. 
b05 
bite can be taken with impunity. Were it otherwise, indeed, 
the snail would naturally begin to devour the first leaf which 
came in its way without taking the trouble to climb the long 
stalk—an arduous journey for a small snail, which is only 
tempted upwards, like the boy who climbs a greasy pole, by 
the prospect of something very nice at the top. Having been 
regaled, however, with a delicious drop of nectar and made 
comfortable for the night, the snail at once departs, ciawls 
up the sheath, brushing off pollen as it goes, then down the 
stalk, and without delay begins to mount another, just as 
other blossoms are announcing by their fragrance that they 
are in want of its services. 
“ And thus,” as Cams Sterne, to whom we are indebted 
for most of the above facts, remarks, “ the flowers receive the 
needful pollen by the fastest snail express.” 
Selina Gaye. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICRO¬ 
SCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
SOCIOLOGICAL SECTION. 
At the opening meeting of the Sociological Section for 
the current session, held at the Mason College, on Thursday, 
15th October, 1885, Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., the President, 
delivered a brief address, in which he alluded to the satis¬ 
factory progress of the Section, and to the number of 
accomplished masters and students of the respective sciences 
embraced in the “Synthetic Philosophy” who had kindly 
rendered assistance to the Section. The Section had system¬ 
atically gone through Mr. Herbert Spencer’s “ Essays on 
Education,” and it was now engaged in a critical examina¬ 
tion of “The Principles of Biology” and “The Study 
of Sociology.” Mr. Hughes also alluded to the gratifying 
fact that within the last few days Mr. Herbert Spencer 
had completed and published a third edition of the 
first volume of “ The Principles of Sociology.” The 
volume was specially interesting to the Section, as 
it contained a subject-index which had been prepared 
—as a labour of love—by Mr. F. Howard Collins, F.L.S., 
one of the members, and which could not fail to be most 
valuable to students. The volume had also a new appendix C, 
and it contained about 2,500 references to 455 works quoted 
therein. Mr. Hughes also announced that Part VI. of 
“The Principles of Sociology—Ecclesiastical Institutions” 
was in the press and would be published immediately, 
